Many medicaments and nutriments are provided in tablet form. This is not a result of the manufacturer being unable to provide a liquid or powder form of the tablet, but instead probably stems in part from the result of being unable to precisely control the dosage of the medication and the economics involved in packaging the medication in powder or liquid form. The fact that most medication is predominantly available in tablet form may not be important to an individual who is able to take the tablet form of the medication, but rather to the individual who has difficulty swallowing the tablet in whole form. This is especially true when dispensing medication in a geriatric environment. Therefore, someone, typically a nurse, is required to crush or pulverize the tablet if it cannot be consumed in whole form. The powder is then dissolved in a liquid or mixed with a food substance which can be more easily swallowed.
The following prior art reflects the state of the art of which applicant is aware and is included herewith to discharge applicant's acknowledged duty to disclose relevant prior art. It is stipulated, however, that none of these references teach singly nor render obvious when considered in any conceivable combination the nexus of the instant invention as disclosed in greater detail hereinafter and as particularly claimed.
______________________________________ PATENT NO. ISSUE DATE INVENTOR ______________________________________ 4,366,930 January 4, 1983 Trombetti, Jr. 4,765,549 August 23, 1988 Sherman 5,067,666 November 26, 1991 Sussman 5,169,076 December 8, 1992 Dols 5,176,329 January 5, 1993 DeCoster, et al. 5,178,337 January 12, 1993 Lupoli 5,180,114 January 19, 1993 Chen 5,199,655 April 6, 1993 Yang ______________________________________
A number of innovations have arisen to crush or pulverize tablets or pills, especially medicaments or nutriments, but problems still persist. For example, Lupoli, U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,337, teaches the use of a plier-like crusher with pivotal handles including serrated jaws. This crusher has a tendency to break up the tablets or pills in a chunk-like fashion rather than crushing or pulverizing the pill completely into powdered form. Furthermore, these chunks tend to exit the crusher in a projectile-like fashion thereby not only endangering the operator, but also losing a portion of the prescribed dosage that was to be administered to the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,549 to Sherman and U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,930 to Trombetti, Jr. teach the use of alternative versions of the hand-operated pill crusher that address the problems of a portion of the pill being projected from the crusher. Yet they still fail to substantially conserve the entire dosage, a portion of which ends up coating surfaces of the pestle and/or mortar. As a result, a portion of the dosage of the pill may be lost. In addition, it is likely that a portion of a prior dose may cross-contaminate entirely different medication being crushed for subsequent dispensation to other patients.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,666 to Sussman teaches the use of a pill crusher which uses electrical means to continuously drive mechanical means against a pill. This ongoing pressure actually causes the pill to rebind into a pancake-like fashion instead of being pulverized into powder form. The problem of the device becoming contaminated by a previous pill is still prevalent in this type of pill pulverizer. In addition, the device is large and bulky in size which prevents it from being properly stationed upon a typical cart used to facilitate dispensing medicine. Furthermore, the portability of the device is hampered by the long duration of charge time needed to charge a non-removeable battery.
The other prior art listed above, but not specifically discussed, further catalogs the prior art of which the applicant is aware. The present invention diverges even more starkly from the references listed, but not discussed.